The group joined Bowie in the theatrical style of the material's presentation. Ronson's guitar and arranging during the Spiders from Mars era not only fit into this style, but also provided much of the underpinning for later punk rock musicians.[1]

In 1975 Bolder and Woodmansey reformed the band without Ronson, and were joined in this lineup by Mike Garson, Dave Black, Pete McDonald. Their self-titled album, released in 1976, was their only album before the group disbanded.

The name came from the famous UFO sighting where a stadium crowd thought they had witnessed Martian spacecraft which turned out to be migrating spiders.